The Cup Series moves its vans to the one-mile tri-oval of Phoenix International Raceway this weekend after a much needed weeks rest over Easter to recharge batteries and prepare mentally for the grind to come during the rest of the Cup Series season. It’s time to tune the engines and get the cars set up for a track that is unique as far as tracks go on the circuit. The Phoenix International Raceway is in disguise, it’s actually a short track dressed up as an intermediate oval.

The track designers have produced a track that has an irregular D shape and moderately flat banking in the corners while retained that short track feel in a one mile form. The statistical history of the Phoenix race can tell you quite a bit about the possible rankings at the end of the Phoenix race, but then you always have to figure in the driving history of teams and racers into the equations. These two variables have helped me in my calculated guesses for the final standings at Phoenix. The following is our race rankings for the Subway Fresh Fit 500 at Phoenix International Raceway which you can catch on Fox at 8 p.m. on Saturday.

Kyle Busch will win again

•1. Kyle Busch

Kyle has consistency shown to have the fastest car, even though he hasn’t always driven as well as he can.

•2. Jimmie Johnson

Jimmie would probably like to race at this Arizona oval every week, considering he’s won the last three races at this venue, and he’s already won on a short track this season.

•3. Jeff Gordon

Expect Gordon to run fast and provide competition to Kyle through out the race, he’s always run pretty good here over the years and I think he’s ready to let his little devil loose.

•4. Mark Martin

Mark started pretty slow early in the season, but he got his race in order on the short tracks of Bristol and Martinsville, so expect him to be ready to rock and roll at Phoenix.

•5. Denny Hamlin

Hamlin has raced hard and fast on the circuit’s short tracks so far in 2009 and he’s finished in the top five four times before at Phoenix.

•6. Jeff Burton

•7. Kevin Harvick

•8. Tony Stewart

•9. Ryan Newman

•10. Clint Bowyer

“Images: Newscom.com”

Well, he doesn’t have 7 wins in the Sprint Cup Series this season, and it doesn’t appear as though he’ll be attempting to break any of NASCAR’s overall win records at the moment, but if you ask Jimmie Johnson, dubbing Kyle Busch as your 2008 Sprint Cup champion at this point is very premature.

Johnson currently sits 4th in the points standings, but has been methodically working his way up the ladder these past few weeks after getting off to a rather slow start to the season by his standards. After winning 10 races last year and 5 in the year before, the no. 48 team had only one win and no poles to their credit through the first 19 races of the season, and that lone win (Phoenix) was won on fuel mileage no less. Still, with one of the best teams in the sport behind him, spearheaded by Crew Chief, Chad Knaus, the team kept plugging away week after week, taking advantage of any testing opportunity that presented itself, and it’s paid off.

Jimmie dashed his way to the pole for last week’s Allstate 400 and then dominated the ensuing race to pickup his 2nd career victory at the Brickyard, and his second win of the season. And, whether his motivation was to clear any doubt that it may have been a one-off deal or if it was just for good measure, he’s followed last week’s performance up by also taking the pole award for today’s running of the Pennsylvania 500 in Pocono.

While it’s obvious that the team’s on a roll right now, if you have any doubt as to just how far this kind of momentum can carry them, just take a look back at last year’s archives. The scary thing is that at this time last year Johnson was 9th in the standings, but managed to rattle off 6 wins in the final 16 races of the season, finishing outside of the top-ten only three times in that span, and never finishing worse that 21st. He went onto capture his second consecutive Sprint Cup title that year, and if he can pull of a repeat of last Fall’s performance again, then he would match Cale Yarbrough’s record as the only drivers in the modern era to win the Cup three years in a row.

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In the face of all of the scrutiny that has overcome NASCAR’s recent development, the Car of Tomorrow, there have also been quite a few tracks that have seen improved racing this year, largely attributed to the new car. Based on what we’ve seen this season and in the limited number of COT races in 2007, here are the tracks that have seen the most improvement:

5. Phoenix International Raceway - Though the racing was never terrible at Phoenix, it wasn’t great, either. The Subway Fresh Fit 500, however, ranks amongst my favorite races of the first half of the season, and that’s even with the outcome being determined by fuel mileage (which is something I can easily get tired of).

4. Infineon Raceway - While road course racing has never been my favorite, I always had a particularly bad perception of Infineon out in Sonoma, CA. While I still didn’t think the Toyota Save/Mart 350 in June was great by any means, I did think that the track had found significant improvement from where it was in years past.

3. New Hampshire Motor Speedway - While the Car of Tomorrow setup doesn’t seem to agree with the 1.5 mile “cookie cutter” tracks thus far, it seems to have done wonders for the action at the 1.0 speedway in Loudon, NH. While I would typically dread the very thought of NASCAR’s visit to New Hampshire, I was very pleasantly surprised and pleased with the action in the Lenox Industrial Tools 301 just a couple of weeks ago.

2. Daytona International Speedway - Despite it being the most hyped and celebrated of all tracks on the Sprint Cup schedule, more often than not, the hype seemed to out perform that actual races themselves. That no longer seems to be the case, however, as both the Daytona 500 and the Coke Zero 400 rank amongst the best and most exciting races through the first half of 2008.

1. Talladega Superspeedway - There was quite a bit of uncertainty when the teams unloaded the COT at Talladega for the first time earlier this Spring, but in the end, the Aaron’s 499 resembled something along the lines of an actual race instead of just the crapshoot that it normally is (or was).

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It took 15 races with Hendrick Motorsports, and 76 races since Richmond in 2006, but Dale Earnhardt Jr. has finally once again reached Victory Lane - silencing his critics and giving Junior Nation something to cheer about. Earnhardt led five times on the day, last taking the lead from Jamie McMurray on lap 195. With the majority of the field making green flag stops for fuel in the last 20 laps of the race, Earnhardt fans watched nervously as the no. 88 team decided to stretch their fuel. Originally guesstimating themselves to be 2 laps short of the pit window, they were hoping that Dale had saved enough fuel during the last run to make the tank last … and then the caution flag waived on lap 197 when Sam Hornish Jr. spun through the infield, sending the race into overtime for a green-white-checkered finish.

Lining up for the restart for the 2-lap shootout, Earnhardt led the field to the green flag followed by Kasey Kahne and Mark Martin (both of whom were also gambling on fuel mileage), and then Brian Vickers and Matt Kenseth. Junior was able to get a monster restart, putting some distance between he and the no. 9 car of Kasey Kahne. Mark Martin ran out of fuel on the first lap of the restart, making Earnhardt fans even that much more nervous. Then, on the final lap, contact between some cars a little deeper in the field sent Michael Waltrip and Patrick Carpentier spinning. The caution came out, and just like that, Dale Earnhardt Jr. had finally snapped his winless streak. He coasted to the finish, and then ran out of fuel heading down pit road.

The win is very symbolic for Earnhardt Jr, being that it came on Father’s Day. As car owner, Rick Hendrick, joined him in Winner’s Circle to celebrate the win, and the two hugged, Dale took the time to wish a Happy Father’s Day to everyone. This is now the 8th Father’s Day since the passing of Junior’s father, the late Dale Earnhardt Sr.

Last week’s race winner, Kasey Kahne, went onto finish 2nd as he was hooked up on the same fuel strategy as Earnhardt Jr. Matt Kenseth was perhaps the most dominant car in the second half of the race, but was forced to settle for 3rd. Brian Vickers started the race in 18th, but moved up inside the top-five by lap 15, and then took the lead for the first time on lap 34. The strategies, however, did not work in his favor, and he finished fourth, giving the team their second consecutive top-five finish. Tony Stewart had a very quiet day and led only 1 lap during the race, but he grabbed a much needed 5th place finish.

Jimmie Johnson led the most laps on the day, but a bad pit stop on lap 182 forced him into a 6th place finish. 7th place went to Carl Edwards who run up in the top-five for almost the entire day. David Ragan ran outside of the top-ten for most of the day, but as things shuffled out in the end, he found himself in 8th and just 10 points out of the Chase field. Elliott Sadler had a quiet and solid day. After starting in 27th, he went onto finish in 9th, giving the no. 19 team only their third top-ten finish of the season. And, Jamie McMurray rounded out the top-ten after looking as though he could finish 1st or 2nd until the lap 197 caution forced him to pit for fuel.

Points leader, Kyle Busch, got lost in the shuffle of things. After starting the race from the pole position and running near the front in the final segment of the race, he found himself in 13th when the checkers waived in the air. It was still enough to add to his points lead, however, as Jeff Burton finished in 15th. The run was a disappointing one for Burton, who started the race in 2nd, but it did keep his streak alive as he is still the only driver in the series to finish every race running inside the top-15. Busch now leads Burton in the standings by 32 points, while 3rd place, Dale Earnhardt Jr, has closed the gap between he and the leader to just 84 points.

Late race mishaps cost the cars of AJ Allmendinger, Greg Biffle, and Sam Hornish Jr. some very valuable track position. After climbing into the top-ten, Allmendinger overshot his pit entrance during the last round of stops and wound up finishing 19th. For Biffle, it was another costly penalty late in the race. After running inside the top-ten all day long, Biffle made his final stop with just 15 laps to go. Greg received the command to go as soon as the jack dropped, so he did just that, but he ran over the air hose, and NASCAR penalized him with a drive thru penalty. He finished 20th. Sam Hornish Jr. led the first laps in his Cup career and was running inside the top-ten until he spun on lap 197 to bring out the sixth caution of the day, resulting in a 22nd place finish.

Earnhardt Jr’s victory gives Hendrick Motorsports only their second victory of the season - both of which were won on fuel mileage (the other being Johnson’s win at Phoenix). As previously mentioned, it also snaps a 75 race winless streak for Earnhardt and gives him his first points victory since making the move to HMS at the beginning of this year.

Michigan Grades:
the Race: 85%
the Drama: 99%
Coverage: 85%
Pre-Race: 84%

Overall Grade: 87.7%

Complete Results (from nascar.com):

Sprint Cup Series Standings (from nascar.com):

We all know that Joe Gibbs Racing has established themselves as the powerhouse of the field at this point in time. We know that Roush-Fenway Racing has come a long way in figuring out this new car and that Hendrick Motorsports seems to have lost the edge that they had on everyone else last year. We’ve analyzed potential contractual signings every which way we could, and still found ourselves locked in a guessing game. Been there, done that, but perhaps one of the stories that we haven’t talked nearly enough about are two teams that are holding out hope of getting a driver into contention for the Chase for the Cup for the first time in their team’s history, and another that hasn’t fielded a Chase contender since 2004.

Once considered one of the top organizations in NASCAR, Yates Racing last visited Victory Lane back in the Fall of 2005 when Dale Jarrett drove the no. 88 car to a win at Talladega and the last time they were able to land a driver inside the top-12 in points was with Elliott Sadler back in ‘04. Since those days, the team has gone through a horrendous rebuilding stage and continue to struggle week in and week out to find primary sponsorship of their cars driven by Travis Kvapil and David Gilliland. Both are highly regarded as “underdogs” every Sunday when the series hits the track, and both have failed to land a top-five finish all season long. Still, they’ve continued to push forward, and have managed to turn a few heads along the way, particularly Kvapil. Coming into the season as a driver that nobody really paid much attention to, Travis admittedly got off to a rather slow start. But, something seems to have clicked within this team ever since a solid run at Phoenix turned sour and he finished 22nd. After that race, Kvapil sat 24th in points, but four finishes of 16th or better in the last six races - highlighted with a 6th place run at Talladega and an 8th place run in Darlington - have now moved Travis up six spots in the standings. He’s now 18th in points and trails 12th place, Tony Stewart, by only 150 points.

Red Bull Racing has been the team that quite a few people have been talking about as of late. With Brian Vickers and AJ Allmendinger behind the wheel for the organization, the team managed to qualify for only 40 races in a combined 72 attempts in their inaugural season in 2007. Coming into the season with both cars outside of the top-35 in points and forced to qualify on time, Allmendinger again missed out on the first three events of ‘08 before being replaced temporarily by veteran driver, Mike Skinner. Despite failing to finish inside of the top-25 in any of the five races that Skinner filled in, the move appears to have paid dividends. AJ has been able to take what he’s learned from Skinner and put it to good use on the track, first winning the All-Star Showdown at Lowe’s to make the cut for the All-Star event itself, and then scoring a career best 12th place finish last week at Pocono. Still, the focus of the media on this team has been placed with Brian Vickers, who appears to be on the verge of scoring the second Cup victory of his career. After a disappointing 2007 that brought him only 1 top-five and 5 top-ten’s, Vickers has been impressive on several occassions this year, though it may not always show up in the results column. He’s been strong on all of the superspeedways, but the team really started to turn heads when they established themselves as one of the dominant cars in the Coca Cola 600 before an equipment failure ended their day. Since then he’s bounced back with a 13th place effort at Dover and finished 2nd last week at Pocono. Brian has now moved up to 17th place overall and trails 12th by a mere 112 points.

Rounding out the list of underdogs making a charge towards the Chase is non-other than Petty Enterprises. Despite the fact that this team has more wins than any other organization in the history of the sport and a slieu of championships from when “the King” himself, Richard Petty, drove the car, the company hasn’t celebrated a win since 1999 when John Andretti won at Martinsville, and the closest they’ve come to a bid for the Chase was an 18th place finish in the standings last year from Bobby LaBonte. Now, nobody’s really sure who will drive the no. 45 car next year as Kyle Petty, Chad McCumbee, and Terry LaBonte have all failed to do much with the ride, but Bobby continues to press forward. Though he’s failed to score a top-ten all season long, he does have seven top-15’s and has gone the entire year without a DNF, something that has hindered the team in recent years. Additionally, he’s got six finishes of 18th or better in the last eight races, which started with a 12th place run at Phoenix, and LaBonte now resides in 19th in the standings, trailing his former Gibbs teammate in 12th by 159 points.

As many of the drivers in the top-12 continue to experience their share of misfortunes as they bounce back and forth between the bubble spots, this could be a prime opportunity for one of these teams to capitalize. But, with the recent emergance of guys like David Ragan, the resurgance of Matt Kenseth, and other perrenial Chase hopefuls such as Ryan Newman and Martin Truex Jr. standing between them as well, the guys currently in the top-12 may not be all they’ll have to contend with.

DYN Imposes:
This week, Do You NASCAR also asks its readers …

1. Which driver in these 3 organizations will be the first to score their first / next win?
2. Are consistent top-15 and top-20 runs going to be enough to land a driver in the Chase field?
3. Which of these teams has made the best organizational move(s) in the last 2 years?
4. Will any of these 3 teams get a driver into the 2008 Chase? If so, who?

*Credit photos to Newscom.

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It’s probably fair to say that before the 2008 NASCAR season started, the dynamic duo over at Hendrick Motorsports, Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson, would have finished in the top-five “Most Hated Drivers” poll by NASCAR fans. For years, Jeff Gordon’s dominant on-track nature has had him marked as the “Alpha Male” in the sport, but it has also marked a huge target on his back in the eyes of the fans. And, ever since Johnson has entered the Cup Series ranks and adopted Gordon’s winning behavior, the typical fan has seemingly put Jimmie into that same anti-Gordon category. Sure, they have both always had more than their share of fans throughout the country, but unlike most other drivers, it’s always been that if you’re not a fan, then you’re actually rooting against them each and every week. It’s never been a case of, “Oh, well I wouldn’t mind seeing him win” … at least until now.

Maybe it’s the fact that in 2008, Dale Earnhardt Jr. joined the ranks of NASCAR’s most dominating organization. Or, maybe it’s that Kyle Busch has taken the heat off these guys. Whatever it is, the crowd’s cheers were louder than their jeers for the first time in years as Jeff Gordon was introduced for the All-Star Challenge, and nothing was thrown on the track after Jimmie Johnson won the Subway Fresh Fit 500. It’s allowed us to stop looking at the two of them as these evil figures in NASCAR and instead focus on some of the many good things that they do not only for our sport, but for their loyal fans out there as well as some of the less fortunate.

For instance, as WSOCTV.com pointed out just the other day, in the midst of a new marriage, raising their newborn, and competing to win his fifth Cup Series championship, Jeff Gordon still takes the time out of his schedule to meet with members of his fan club throughout the year, the largest of which showings takes place at Hendrick Headquarters in Charlotte during the May Speedweek. Earlier this month, Jimmie Johnson petitioned his fans to support the Jimmie Johnson Foundation by donating money for the May 16th NASCAR Telethon in an effort to get an extra $24k for the Foundation, which of course would help support their mission of assisting needy children and families.

Let’s also not forget what the duo did this past April at Phoenix International Raceway when Gordon continued his thirteen-year relationship with the Make-A-Wish Foundation as he visited a young child from New York in the hospital. That same weekend, the Jimmie Johnson Foundation sponsored the Camping World West Series race to once again support that continued effort.

The most recent of these ongoing ventures occured earlier this week after Bank of America signed new licensing agreements with Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr, and Casey Mears to expand their “My Expression NASCAR Banking Program,” which Gordon already participates in. To celebrate, Hendrick Motorsports and Bank of America teamed up to surprise BOA banking customer, Rhonda Beck of Cornelus, NC, with not only the opportunity to not only tour the HMS race shop, but also the once in a lifetime opportunity to meet with 2-time Cup Series Champion, Jimmie Johnson. Johnson spent several hours talking with Rhonda as the two toured through the shop, and took the time to explain to her about the car set-ups and how they are processed to be made “race-ready”.

“One of the great things about our sport is that we get to interact so closely with fans, but rarely do we get a chance to be part of a fun, well-kept secret. It was cool to see the look on her face. I could tell that Bank of America really helped to make this experience special for their NASCAR banking customer,” Johnson said.

The over-exhilarated Rhonda Beck stated, “This has truly been a once in a lifetime experience for me. It’s all so wonderful, and I’ll remember it forever. I saw some pretty neat stuff today.”

For more information on this great banking program, please visit Bank of America’s NASCAR Banking website at My Expression NASCAR Banking Program.

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For the third time in this NASCAR season - or, for the third time in the past month, for that matter - Juan Pablo Montoya, driver of the no. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Dodge Charger, will hear a different voice over the team radio during the race this weekend. After playing a round of Charity golf with Montoya on Monday, by Tuesday afternoon Jimmy Elledge had received the official word from Ganassi Racing that his tenure with the race team was over and that he was being released.

Elledge started the season off as the Crew Chief for the no. 41 team piloted by Reed Sorenson, but the team has been in the danger zone of slipping outside of the top-35 in owners points all season long, so Ganassi decided to swap Crew Chiefs between the two teams, sending Elledge to Montoya’s team, ending the relationship between he and Donnie Wingo, who had served at the helm for JPM ever since Montoya made his break into the NASCAR ranks.

Elledge’s time working with Montoya has lasted the course of only three points races, which included a second place run at Talladega, but nothing noteworthy since then. With Elledge’s departure from the team, Ganassi has now named Brian Pattie as the interim crew chief for the no. 42 team until a permanent replacement is found.

Pattie has been with the organization since 2004 when he served as the Crew Chief for Reed Sorenson in the Nationwide Series. He also worked with Montoya in the Nationwide Series last year during his rookie season, and will now take his first swing at the Cup level beginning with the Coca Cola 600 this upcoming weekend. Montoya recently dropped out of the top-12 in the standings after a dismal run at Richmond, and has now fallen all the way down to 16th. The team will be hoping for an immediate connection between driver and chief, because too much more inter-team turmoil could quickly end Montoya’s bid for his first cut in the Chase for the Sprint Cup field.

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In the midst of all the contract controversies that have taken place already this year, all along we’ve heard Greg Biffle state that his deal to resign with Roush-Fenway Racing is 99% complete, and that he hasn’t yet begun talking to any other teams. But, we heard these same statements from both parties last year, and a deal was never actually finalized. Now, after a dismal night in Darlington, we’ve started to see a different side of the Biff that we haven’t quite been accustomed to in the past.

Biffle smashed the track record at Darlington during qualifying en route to winning his first Pole Award of the season, and then he went out and strutted his stuff through the first half of the race, looking as though he were the class of the field to that point. His bid for a third Darlington win in four years was crushed in heartbreaking fashion, though, when his transmission failed him on lap 237. This was Biffle’s first DNF attributed to actual engine failure since the Bank of America 500 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway back in October of 2006 and the seventh of his career, but still, Greg seems to feel as though they’re experiencing some sort of troubles with their equipment week after week.

Following the race, a frustrated Biffle told the media, “This has been typical of our equipment, I guess. Loose wheels all night, bad vibration, then I think the motor blew up. All I want is equipment to drive that stays together.”

Biffle was not the only driver in the Roush camp that complained about issues with their car throughout the night, as Carl Edwards, Matt Kenseth, and Jamie McMurray all also relayed concerns with their tires and some unidentified vibrations throughout the race, though they all held onto finish 11th or better.

Biffle continued his meeting with the press by adding, “It is really frustrating, but, you know what, I’ve just come accustomed to expecting it, because it’s just week after week it’s something. Something breaks, something falls off, we’ve got wheels loose …”

There has been a lot of speculation in recent weeks that a swap could be in the works between Biffle and Ryan Newman, whose contract with Penske Racing also expires at the end of 2008. Newman has publically expressed woes earlier this season concerning equipment failure as well - particularly after the race at Phoenix in which he also experienced an engine failure and finished dead last. Some have also suggested the Greg might be a strong candidate to field the fourth car that will come into service for Richard Childress Racing next season.

Biffle won championships in both the Nationwide (then Busch Series) and Craftsman Truck Series prior to making 7 starts in the Cup Series back in 2002, and going full-time in ‘03. In 197 career Sprint Cup Series starts, Biffle has accumulated 12 wins, 38 top-fives, and 66 top-ten’s. However, despite winning at least one race in each of his full-time seasons, Biffle’s only finish inside the top-twelve in points came in 2005 when he tied teammate, Carl Edwards, for second. Still, Greg Biffle remains one of the hottest names on the free agent market heading into 2009, and if Roush-Fenway Racing isn’t careful, they could find themselves in search of another driver at the end of this season.

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Sprint Cup Series driver, Ryan Newman, started the 2008 season off in grand fashion by winning the race of all races, the Daytona 500. Things couldn’t be better for Newman at the time. He was leading the Sprint Cup standings for the first time in his career, he’d bolstered the public perception of how well he and teammate, Kurt Busch, could work together after Busch gave him that huge push to win the race, and he’d forever solidified his name in the walls of Penske Racing by giving Roger his first-ever restrictor plate win.

Newman followed up his big win with a 10th place run the following week in Fontana, CA during the Auto Club 500, but things started to turn south real quick after that for the driver that fans once highly regarded as “Flyin” Ryan. Following that race, Newman then embarked on a string of four consecutive races outside the top-ten, including a 33rd place finish at Bristol thanks to mechanical issues.

Things have since started to turn back around for Newman, though. He’s currently pieced together three top-ten finishes in his last four starts, and would probably have four straight if not for another engine failure at Phoenix that caused him to finish dead last. After once looking as though he might slip outside of the top-12 in points, he remains in 11th place with a 56 point cushion between he and 13th place Jeff Gordon, and after ten races, he has been within the Chase field for the entire season now. Looking forward, the immediate future is looking bright for Newman, as he boasts the fourth best driver rating at Darlington according to racingone.com, and has an overall average finish there of 5th place.

It should also be noted that this is a pivotal year in the career of Newman, for both he and Penske Racing. Newman’s contract is up following the 2008 season, and if he fails to resign by the end of the season, he could potentially leave his name out there as the hottest free agent on the market. In the two years prior to ‘08, Newman compiled zero wins and finished outside of the top-12 both years.

In Other News:
- Roush Racing is looking more and more like they will be heading into 2009 with the same driver lineup as they entered this season with, despite having two of their biggest contracts expire at the end of the season. Carl Edwards, who currently leads the Cup Series in victories this year, recently inked a deal with Roush that will keep him with the organization for another three years, reported to be worth approximately $6 million a year. Greg Biffle’s contract is also up after this season, but continues to report that he’s 99% confident that a return to Roush-Fenway Racing is eminent, and that he has not yet begun fielding offers from any other race teams.

- It was recently reported widely across the internet that Bobby LaBonte signed a deal over the weekend with his current team, Petty Enterprises, that will lock up the driver of the no. 43 Dodge with the organization for the remainder of his career. The news came after Richard Childress Racing announced the formation of a fourth race team next season and that they had already signed General Mills to be their sponsor in 2009, and speculation immediately ran rampant that LaBonte would later be announced as the team’s driver. In response to the news of him resigning with Petty, LaBonte told the media Saturday in Richmond prior to the race that, “Unless you’ve heard it from me, it’s probably not true.” To that, there is still no official word as to whether or not these rumors hold true.

Peyton Sellers won the season-opening Camping World East Series event this past weekend at Greenville-Pickens Speedway in Easley, SC for Andy Santerre Motorsports. Following the race, however, NASCAR officials found that the 16-year-old’s car was in possession of an illegal shock, and NASCAR in turn stripped him of his victory. This is the first time in recent memory that I believe NASCAR has stripped a driver in any series of a win for any rules infraction, but the team definitely feels like they’re being made an example of.

Santerre said to reporters, “Needless to say we are shocked and disappointed. We are being made an example … We admit there was a rules infraction, but it was a shock to us with as much as it was unintentional and unknown prior to post-race inspection.”

The team is obviously disappointed that they have been penalized with the loss of their race win on top of whatever other penalties NASCAR decides to hand to them, but to make matters worse, they deemed the car with a  30th place finish. The win was then awarded to Sellers’ teammate and original second-place finisher, Austin Dillon – grandson to Sprint Cup Series car owner, Richard Childress.

In Other News:
- Due to the Nationwide Series’ race in Talladega and the Craftsman Truck Series race in Kansas both being held on Saturday, Kyle Busch has conceded running the truck race this weekend. The series’ points leader will be replaced in the no. 51 Billy Ballew Motorsports truck by Shane Sieg. Shane has made 29 career starts in the truck series and has posted two top-ten finishes. One of those top-ten’s actually came behind the wheel of a Billy Ballew Motorsports truck last year at Loudon.

- Haas CNC Racing’s recent release of Jeremy Mayfield has left them scrambling for drivers week-to-week to fill the seat behind the wheel of their no. 70 Chevy Impala. The first week after firing Mayfield, they put Johnny Sauter in the car at Phoenix en route to a 37th place finish, and this weekend they’ll be hoping for better results with Ken Schrader at the helm. The team has recently locked on another driver for at least two of the season’s events with Max Papis scheduled to drive the car at both of the road course races in Watkins Glen and Infineon.